Preventive flood protection takes effect
"Municipalities in Germany are better prepared for flood events than they were just a few years ago, and municipal flood prevention has made great strides," Otto Schaaf, president of the DWA, notes in summing up the current flood events.
In particular, many communities along the Rhine and Danube rivers with their tributaries are already well prepared for river floods with several days of forecast, as the events in the first week of January 2018 and the days after showed, as the German Association for Water, Wastewater and Waste (DWA). Scientific progress is also having a positive effect: Weather models and water level forecasts have been further improved in recent years and have found their way into practice. Likewise, the interaction of the state flood control centers with the municipalities is having an effect: The municipalities have set up mobile flood protection facilities in good time and organized hazard prevention. In Saxony, for example, it was thus possible to restore flood protection everywhere at an early stage. All clear be given. Good preparation at the municipal level, good flood and weather forecasts, and good interaction between all stakeholders have thus led to significantly improved preparedness, and the efforts and investments made in advance are being rewarded.
In addition to the many activities at the federal, state and municipal levels, the DWA has also played a part in this success. It has produced numerous specialist publications on this subject and offers local authorities a qualified assessment of their measures to prevent flooding and the consequences of heavy rain. In the DWA audit "Flood prevention - flooding and heavy rain", all precautionary aspects are discussed in the municipal context. Central are the targeted information of the citizens and the help for own precaution.
Press release DWA
